“All people, whether Jews or Gentiles are under the power of sin.” Romans 3:9

When I was homeless living outside on the streets of Denver, Colorado I had lost everything and I was running scared. My 28 year journey of addiction and manic depression had brought me to the edge of life and death. I had become spiritually devastated and broken. I felt like there was a big concrete barrier between me and God, and I did not know how to break through it. Emotionally, I was full of anger and rage and uncontrolled fear that was killing my spirit and my will to live. I was consumed by a loneliness that I could feel in my bones, like a constant burning ache in my soul. I was all alone.

In the end, I was sleeping inside of an electrical utility closet in an alley behind my favorite bar. People were dying all around me, and I could feel death breathing down the back of my neck. I knew in my soul that I was going to die very soon, if I did not make a change. In utter desperation and trembling with fear, I said a very simple but powerful prayer: I said. “Jesus please help me.” With the help of Jesus and my family, I was able to get to Hazelden Foundation in Minnesota for long term treatment. I am alive today because Jesus loved me that day and he continues to love me now.

Sin separates all of us from God. This was the “concrete barrier” that I was talking about. Jesus gives us forgiveness of our sins and eternal life. Jesus took our punishment so that we could have eternal life.

The Bible explains it this way: “But now God has shown us a way to be made right with Him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.” Romans 3:21-22 (NIT)

“For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those sinners in times past, for He was looking ahead and including them in what He would do in this present time.” Romans 3:25-26 (NIT)

Some people try to complicate or mystify what Christianity really is. All of us have sinned and Jesus is answer. Jesus paid the price of our sin by sacrificing His life, so that we can live. Jesus sacrificed His life so that we can have forgiveness of our sins, and He was raised by the Father so that we can receive the free gift of eternal life. All we have to do is ask Jesus into our hearts and pray a prayer like the one below.

There has never been a better deal, a more important deal or a more powerful deal than this. We are exchanging our sin for eternal life!

Jesus is the greatest love and the greatest power in the Universe. He created Heaven and Earth and every person, animal, plant, river and lake and star that exists. For Him to come down to Earth and take on the form of a human being and then permit His own torture and death on the cross for our sake and for our redemption, is a love that is not easily understood.

Jesus conquered death so that with our faith in Him, we would not die and we will have eternal life: “He was handed over to die because of our sins, and He was raised to life to make us right with God.” Romans 4:25 (NIT)

God’s love is so much deeper and so much more powerful than any human love. Why did Jesus do it? Jesus died in our place to make sure that anyone who invites Him into their heart and has faith that He died for our sins, and that the Father raised Him from the dead, would live and not perish. We are born eternal beings. It is just a matter of where we choose to spend our eternity, in Heaven with Jesus or in hell with the devil forever.

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”

Here is a prayer that will change your eternity:

Lord Jesus, I am a sinner.

I believe that you died upon the cross for

me and that you shed your precious blood for

the forgiveness of mysin.

I believe that on the third day, you rose from the dead, and went to Heaven to prepare a place forme.

Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, and set me free from my sin.

Because you are my Savior Jesus, “I shall not die, but have eternal life”.

I accept you now Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

Thank you Jesus!

About The Author

Robert J. Allison lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his wife Rochelle Allison. Robert survived a 28-year battle with chemical dependency, including 13 chemical dependency treatment centers and homelessness.
He surrendered his life to Jesus Christ and began his new life of faith and contented sobriety. Robert has been blessed with 18 years of sobriety and with his new freedom he now is helping other addicts to find peace, faith and the priceless gift of sobriety.

Addiction, like many obsessions, is like chasing the wind and never being satisfied. I started using chemicals like alcohol, marijuana and cocaine in my teenager years. I chased those original highs for 28 years, never being able to recapture that feeling of long ago. I discovered that with cocaine and especially with crack cocaine, I would do the first hit of crack and be chasing that first high for as long as my money and strength lasted. I was never satisfied and always hungry for more. I was constantly and frantically chasing the wind. There are probably hundreds of different kinds of addiction and they all involve chasing the wind, which we can never catch. I wrote a letter to my disease of addiction. Here are some of the costs and consequences of my disease of addiction and my life choices:

Letter to the Demon of Chemical Dependency

I met you in the summer of my 16th year. Life was brand new, fun and exciting. However, inside there was an aching loneliness; a smoldering fear at the bottom of a spiritual void. I was fertile soil for you to plant your deadly seed.

You have many angels of death and destruction like cards in your hand, and you dealt me marijuana to warm me up for your game. You were so clever to start with pot, knowing that my mom’s alcoholism had made me fearful of alcohol. I fell in love with pot, and alcohol soon followed. These two drugs made me feel normal. They made me feel calm, energized and powerful. I fell for your bait — hook, line and sinker. By high school graduation, you were my lover and my savior. I even stopped praying to God. You smiled in quiet satisfaction at my progress towards destruction.

You taught me early on how to live a double life, as I excelled in academics and sports while staying emotionally immature and isolated from my family and non-using friends. You wanted me all to yourself, like a jealous lover. I ran to you for emotional comfort and release from stress, as I became a stranger to myself.

You told me I could have my cake and eat it, too. I could have the companionship of your three soldiers: Alcohol, pot and cocaine, and still be materially successful. I did not know the horrific price I would have to pay.

Lying to me was just one of your tools to accomplish your ultimate goal — my death. You seduced me with sweet smelling pot, exhilarating cocaine, and comforting alcohol. In the early years of my 28-year relationship with your chemicals, I had fun, wonderment, exhilaration and friendship with your other wayward travelers. Eventually, happiness turned to hell as I was stripped of my dignity, my self-respect, my connection to God and my family, and I became alienated from my very self. You raped me of all my morals and values, and reduced me to a pile of dirty rags — a beggar and homeless drunk. You cut me deep inside and stole my soul, leaving only an empty shell of a person riddled with pain, fear, desperation, hopelessness, anger, rage, and a crushed spirit. I became numb.

You were like a ravenous bloodthirsty parasite sucking the life out of me, enjoying my slow torture. Twenty-eight years of living hell was the price I paid to dance with you.

Even after suffering incomprehensible demoralization, I turned against myself and joined your chemical soldiers in the battle to win my destruction. You killed my friend Mike in high school, and a month ago, my friend Jessie.

I lost my marriage.

I lost my career.

I became homeless.

I had five near-death experiences.

I lost my dreams.

I lost all the important relationships with family and friends.

I lost my dog.

I lost my drive and ambition.

I lost my self-confidence and my self-respect.

I lost my connection to God.

I violated my values and became a thief and a predator.

I was arrested 15 times, spent ten months in jail, and was in 13 treatment centers.

I lost the love inside my soul, and was filled with anger, rage, fear, desperation, terror and hopelessness.

I lost my faith and my trust in people and in myself.

I could add many things to this list, but you get the idea — you killed me in every possible way except by taking my physical life, and you came close to that five times. This is what I call one hell of a blind date.

I hate you with every cell in my body. I am shocked at your diligence and persistence to obtain your goal — to kill me.

I look at you — the disease of addiction — as a highly intelligent, cunning, powerful, evil being which never rests and is always present, waiting for an opening to strike. I wish I could see your red devil eyes and your blood-dripping fangs, but you are invisible.

You are more powerful than I, but if I could, I would kill you. slowly and deliciously over 28 years I would kill you, relishing your every cry. I hate you even more because you have hurt my friends, my mother, and others that I love. You just keep getting bigger and bigger, and the world is your playground.

I never knew that I would be forced to have a relationship with you — the disease — for the rest of my life. I have stopped feeding you by no longer walking with your chemical soldiers. I have the power of God, and my fellow recovering addicts to keep you at bay. As long as I continue to do on a daily basis, what I need to do to stay sober and to grow spiritually, you will never be able to resume your task of destroying me.

As for your chemical soldiers, I respect and fear them, but they, too, can have no power over me as long as I choose not to use them. Good-bye, pot. Good-bye, alcohol. Good-bye, cocaine. I have found a new solution and His name is Jesus Christ.

Jesus has given me freedom from the bondage and prison of addiction. It is by the Grace of Jesus that I survived the hell of addiction. It is the gift of Jesus that I can now help other addicts to recover. The addicts that I help will go forward and help still others, and Jesus’ love will spread outward like the ripples created by a stone thrown into a lake. Jesus’s love never ends and it starts with us.

I pray that all good things will come to you and I pray for your peace. May God bless you with many opportunities to help other addicts, so that your addictive experiences can have purpose and meaning. The world needs your love, and it is waiting for you!

About The Author

Robert J. Allison lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his wife Rochelle Allison. Robert survived a 28-year battle with chemical dependency, including 13 chemical dependency treatment centers and homelessness.
He surrendered his life to Jesus Christ and began his new life of faith and contented sobriety. Robert has been blessed with 18 years of sobriety and with his new freedom he now is helping other addicts to find peace, faith and the priceless gift of sobriety.

During my 28 years of active addiction, I acted like a fool because I was lacking in Wisdom and my addiction was controlling my life.

I found some interesting Bible verses written by the most wise king in history, Solomon:

“Better to be criticized by a wise person, than to be praised by a fool.” Ecclesiastes 7:5

“It’s better to be a live dog than a dead lion.” Ecclesiastes 9:4

“Control your temper, for anger labels you as a fool.” Ecclesiastes 7:9

“A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back to back and conquer.” Ecclesiastes 5:12

“Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don’t have.” Ecclesiastes 6:9

“Not a single person on Earth is always good and never sins.” Ecclesiastes 8:20

“Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.” Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Here is what is most important: Saint Paul wrote: ” I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow–not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below–indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 9:38 NLT

We have survived the hell of our addiction by the Grace of God and we are reminded that nothing can separate us from God and His love. We have been given a second chance at life and we are forgiven. Welcome to your new life and remember to pass it on to others.

Peace, Love and Blessings to you!

About The Author

Robert J. Allison lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his wife Rochelle Allison. Robert survived a 28-year battle with chemical dependency, including 13 chemical dependency treatment centers and homelessness.
He surrendered his life to Jesus Christ and began his new life of faith and contented sobriety. Robert has been blessed with 18 years of sobriety and with his new freedom he now is helping other addicts to find peace, faith and the priceless gift of sobriety.

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About the Author

Robert J. Allison

"The Story of one man's terrifying journey from hell to heaven."

Robert J. Allison's book covers 28 years of an intense battle with chemical dependency, until at the end of his ropes, he completely surrendered and turned his life over to Jesus Christ. The result is a spectacular recovery and a passion for helping others to find peace and lasting sobriety. The purpose of this book is to give hope, encouragement, faith and love to the suffering addict, who might think that he or she cannot recover. Robert J. Allison lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota with his wife, Rochelle Allison. After surviving a battle with chemical dependency, including 13 chemical dependency treatment centers and homelessness; he surrendered his life to Jesus Christ and began his new life of faith and contented sobriety. Robert has enjoyed 16 years of sobriety and with this new freedom, he now is helping other addicts to find peace, faith and the priceless gift of sobriety. Miracles can happen for you or your family member or your friend, just like they did for Robert J. Allison.